An “in-your-face” public health campaign using billboards and bus shelter advertising is needed to combat the ongoing rise in sexually transmitted infections (STIs), according to a specialist in sexual health.

A trebling of the number of cases of women with gonorrhoea within a month was of such concern that the HSE took the step of writing to doctors to highlight best practice in managing suspected and confirmed infections.

There has been a dramatic rise in cases of HIV, syphilis, and gonorrhoea in the last 18 months, the latest figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) reveal.

Older and illness-prone people were today urged to get the flu jab as cases reached an eight-year high.

SOME 200,000 bird flu vaccines being stored by the Department of Health could be useless by the time a human pandemic of the virus hits, according to a leading health expert.